The invention relates to a method of producing a random faded effect on cloth, whether bulk fabric or made-up garments, and to the end-product obtainable by means of its implementation.
There is constant effort expended in certain fields of the present-day clothing industry, on the creation of a "used", or faded look, a trend which is most noticeable in the case of garments fashioned from denim cloth.
The effect is produced in most instances by employing salts of hypochlorous acid, that is, hypochlorites. The salt most commonly used is sodium hypochlorite, made either by passing chlorine into sodium hydroxide solution, or by subjecting sodium chloride to electrolysis. Hypochlorites in solution (generally at between 0.2 and 0.5%) are widely used as bleaching agents, particularly in the textile industry, as the strong oxidizing properties of the C1O-anion provide a powerful whitener.
Hypochlorite solutions, in their familiar forms of Javelle water, proprietory household bleach and disinfectant products etc., are similarly in widespread use as laundering aids both in the trade and domestically. Such substances permit of producing a uniform bleaching action on fabrics and garments, the end-result of which will be more or less discernable according to its duration.
Subsequently, the trend has been toward a look featuring random faded effects.
One such manifestation of this trend is the practice of stone-washing--i.e. immersing cloth in water containing no other substance than pumice. The effect it is sought to produce on denim treated by this method is one of natural fading, a "used" look characterized by the contrast between light and dark areas; in made-up garments however, the effect tends to appear on and around the seams only, whereas the color of the remaining fabric remains substantially uniform.
Attempts have been made to produce a more authentic look, using the same stone-washing method and adding sodium hypochlorite. Whilst it is true that advantageous cuts in process time have been enabled by adopting such an expedient, the end-result is much the same as that of the original stone-wash, with the fade confined to the seams of the garment.
Accordingly, the object of the method disclosed is that of producing a random faded effect on fabrics or made-up items of clothing, the essential feature of which is the appearance of a plurality of irregular patches that vary in intensity of color shading and are distributed in a non-uniform manner over the entire expanse of the cloth, or garment.